In 1987 I began to work with TeX. Soon, due to my work as a quantum chemist, I started to develop a set of macros for displaying molecular structures within TeX. A first version of this macro package was given out for test purposes to Austrian universities in late 1987. Despite the intent, this version spread out quickly and became popular under the name "chemstruct", up to the level that for a while it became part of the instructions for authors of MATCH. A more complete version was described in my lecture at the TeX88 meeting in Exeter (UK) together with a set of macros for x/y-graphs.

A detailed description of both packages with many examples was published in the proceedings of that meeting. The inputs to these examples are stored in the Aston archive. While these are still a good source of inspiration, the macros themselves have been optimized over the years, side effects, which occured when both were loaded simultaneously, were removed, and several new features were added according to need. Especially the x/y-graph package proved to be a good basis, which can be taylored for specific applications by modifying some of the commands.

In 1992, the need for another set of macros arose, namely for flow charts of computer programs. A description and examples of these macros have been given in TeXline (a very useful newsletter, which unfortunately stopped being published soon thereafter; anyway: thank you, Malcolm, for all your work!) and also stored in the Aston archive.

The following list contains links to the latest versions of all of these packages and supplements. You are welcome to download and use them under the condition that you give proper reference, as described in the macros, and that you do not make money by using or selling them.

Structure formulæ:

struct.def (42K), version of October 24, 2000.

To use a font size of \magstep3, regardless of other font or magnification definitions, put:
\input pubstruct.font
\input struct.def
\input pubstruct.def .

x/y-graphs:

diagram.def (33K), version of June 20, 1995;

command modifyers (to be read in after diagram.def):

• diagramm.def, changes axis labelling to non-English style;
• xnumber.def, changes x-axis labelling to integer;
• ynumber.def, changes y-axis labelling to integer;
• xwinkel.def, changes x-axis labelling to degrees;
• ywinkel.def, changes y-axis labelling to degrees;
• link.def, defines a new command \link{a}{b} that works like \connect{b} but leaves white space of length a at both ends of each segment;
• dotconnect.def, changes \connect, \curve, and \lsqline to produce a series of dots for non-horizontal and non-vertical lines.

Flow charts:

flow.def (23K), version of September 27, 1992.